Advertising display device



Oct. 4, 1949. A. G. HARRIS 2,483,991

ADVERTISING DISPLAY DEVICE FiledJuly 10, 1946 INVENTOR W'f/A A R (1' A ORNEY Patented Oct. 4, 194?) OFFICE ADVERTISING DISPLAY DEVICE Alexander G. Harris, Bloomfield, N. J. Application July 10, 1946, Serial No. 682,689

- 2 Claims. 1

This invention relates to improvements in advertising display devices, and more particularly to a device adapted for the display of merchandise in a novel manner to attain unique optical efiects. v

Embodiments of structures employing the invention are shown in the accompanying drawings and described in detail in the ensuing specification. Such embodiments are merely by way of example; the invention is not limited thereto but includes all other forms which would come within the scope of the appended claims. In the drawings, 7

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a display device embodying my invention,

Fig. 2 is a similar, partly fragmentary view, showing the front wall of the device removed, and the cover member in raised position,

Fig. 3 is a front elevational, partly fragmentary view of the device,

3 Fig. 4 is a transverse sectional view thereof,

taken on line 4-4 of Fig. 1, and

Fig. 5 is a horizontal plan view taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 1. 7

In Figs. 1-4 there is shown a display device embodying my invention, comprising a frame ll provided with end openings 12 and [3 for the reception of end mirror units 14 and I5, and with a front opening l6 for reception of a front mirror unit consisting of glass or other preferably transparent panes ll, l8 with a silver or other. light reflecting coating l0 therebetween (see Fig. 4). The frame H is provided with a medial vertical partition member l9 to receive partition unit dividing the interior of the device into compartments 36, 31, for the reception of articles of merchandise 38 and39 or the like to be displayed therein.-

The frame II is further preferably provided with a depending casing 25, having openings or the like to facilitate securing the device to a suitable base, such as the top'of a cash register or other support, it being desirable to so position the .device that the same is on the eye level of the observer. A cover 21 is hingedly secured to the cable so that the bulbs 29 will be automatically and alternately turned on and off when the cable 30 is connected to an electric line outlet. If desired, a conventional switch unit may also be cut into the cable 30 in the usual manner. The cover 21 may be further provided with baffle plates 34 to serve as light shields for vent openings 35. The device is so constructed that the cover 2'? closes down on the end, front and partition wall units, effectively shutting out all exterior sources of light so that compartments 36, 31 of the device will normally be dark; at such times, the front wall unit I7 and end wall units l4, 15 will serve as. conventional external mirrors. This optical effect is indicated in Fig. 1 and in the non-illuminated right hand or compartment 36 half of the front wall unit H as shown in Fig. 3. Thus the interior of the device is normally effectively shielded from external sources of light.

The bottom wall of the display device is preferably formed of internal mirrors 23 and 24, internal mirrors. 2| and 22 preferably also forming the rear walls of the device. The bottom, rear and partition unit mirrors are preferably of the conventional reflecting type, the partition unit 20 being preferably a' double mirror inserted into the partition channel l9. Each of the end wall units M and I5, and the front wall unit ll of the device, being the walls which are exposed to View, are preferably formed of two panes of glass or other transparent material with a light reflecting coating it therebetween (see Fig. 4).

The light reflecting coating is not applied in such thickness as to present a relatively solid or dense surface which would be opaque to passage of light therethrough, but is preferably so finely applied as to be semi-porous or slightly lightconducting or translucent so that it normally serves in the nature of a semi-opaque or transluce'nt reflecting mirror coating. Thus, the device, as shown in Fig. I, normally presents the external appearance of a mirrored housing. The intermediate coating I0 is suflicient, when the device is internally dark, as in Fig. 1, to reflect objects external to the device in the manner of a conventional mirror, but when the device is internally illuminated, the objects therein, and the reflections of such objects, are visible through the viewed walls ll, l4 and I5, in the manner indicated in Fig. 3, wherein the bulb for compartment 31 is illuminated. (If the rear wall of the device is also exposed to view, the same would likewise be of the form of the front wall I! and the end walls l4l 5, above described.)

In using the device, articles of merchandise 33 and 39 to be displayed are positioned within 

